


Coming Home

by Pi (Rhea)



Category: Gakuen Mokushiroku | Highschool of the Dead
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 23:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13914543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhea/pseuds/Pi
Summary: There are people she cares about here. She has a place to be.





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted 2011 on Dreamwidth
> 
> Prompt: High School of the Dead, Rika/Shizuka, "I'm coming home."

Rika is tired of being at the airport. It's not that laying on her breasts all day shooting Them is dull. It's actually a bit fun, if painful. It's just, after the EMP there doesn't seem to be a point. She's young, high powered, and ready to blow something. A fuse or someone's head clear off...well, she'd rather not find out. There are people she cares about here. Shizuka's out there somewhere, protecting her students, or more likely being protected and providing the correct medical attention. Shizuka's never belonged on the front line. 

Rika puts on her sunglasses and pulls her cap down. There are some things that just aren't worth fighting for. Grounded airplanes count on that list. At first, Rika's a little worried that her partner is going to ask to come with her. The guy is good, and a little funny but Rika doesn't want to slow down. There is a point to traveling in groups and Rika's not there yet. She has a group to go to. She has to believe that. He doesn't ask. He doesn't want to go to the city. His eyes tell her she's crazy. Rika's known for a while. But, really, does anyone expect sanity in these sort of conditions? She doesn't have her car, on foot is too slow. At first, all Rika finds is a moped but it's better than nothing. She ditches it and moves up to an actual motorcycle with some relief. Thirty miles an hour is not speed. 

The city is not chaos. It is immensely quiet, and it's immensely broken. Things are burnt and dead and awfully mislaid. Rika isn't sure where she's going, just that moving is the answer to the numbness in her stomach. She's shot people before. Not the moving dead, but real people. And yet somehow this is different. The scale is different. Rika hopes that Shizuka is safe. 

When she checks her house it's not quite in shambles. Her main stash of weaponry is gone and so is her car. In this case it makes her smile. Rika has to wonder who knew how to use the guns. It's not like they're standard issue. She takes out the hidden panel in the back of her wardrobe and restocks her amo and weapons supplies. The motorcycle will have to do. The water is cold, but she takes a brief shower just to get the sticky feel of the airport out of her hair. The metalic smell of blood doesn't leave her nostrils, but Rika doesn't really mind. 

She leaves, avoiding loud noises and panic and finding the streets clear where she can. She fends Them off with the butt of her gun and the speed of her bike where she can't. Rika occasionally sees people. Not dead people but real people. Some of them wave to her, call for help from the roofs of their houses. Rika doesn't see the tell-tale shine of blond hair. She doesn't have anything to offer. She has a place to be. Somewhere in the back of her mind niggles the thought, maybe they've left the city. Why would Shizuka have waited? She couldn't have known. If they're intelligent, maybe they've fled. Maybe they're leaving. 

Rika thinks of how she would leave. She follows the roads on a path to somewhere new. It's not terribly surprising when early the next morning, after driving all night, she whips by a parked car and nearly skids off the road with her sharp turn around. It is her car. The clanging of the fallen bike has probably alerted Them, but Rika is casual about the way she taps on Shizuka's window. The woman is curled over the stearing wheel, as if she fell asleep driving, though clearly she hasn't. Her head turns and Rika can just imagine the mewling sound she makes through her barely opened lips. Her eyes raise to Rika's face just the same way she remembers. Shizuka's smile of dawning awareness is just as beautiful. 

Rika knows Shizuka well enough not to get hit when her door is flung open. It is perhaps the best feeling of her life, if not at least the past few weeks, to feel Shizuka's very alive body tumbling into her arms. Rika's not quite prepared enough to keep them from ending up on the ground. Somehow she doesn't care. Shizuka's chest weighs against her own and Rika finds her breath coming hard through her body. It's only partly the weight. The other part is Shizuka's smile and the way she's already talking. Rika sees shapes stirring within the cars tinted windows. A girl with pink hair pokes her head out at them. 

"Shizuka-sensei wha-" But she doesn't finish her sentence because they're both clammering to their feet and Rika can sense more than hear the shuffle of encroaching bodies. Not near yet but close enough to stir the air of the street. 

"Come on. I'm driving." Rika says. Shizuka looks like she could cry with relief. Or maybe kiss her. This really isn't the time. Rika slams the door and wakes the other people in the back seat. They've almost overfilled her car, but Rika supposes given the situation that's not uncalled for. 

"Where are we headed?" She asks. 

A boy answers her from the back seat, "Out of the city. We want to find somewhere to hole up for a while. There's nowhere safe, but there are places better than here." 

"That's what I was thinking." Rika agrees. "Having a home base is good way to start any operation. Here," she slings her bag into the back seat. "I can't use these while driving." There are sputters of glee in another male voice from the back of the car and muffled bickering. Rika doesn't pay them notice. She revs the motor, better to move while the fewer of Them there are. She looks overs when she feels a gentle squeeze at her fingers. Shizuka's smile is just as bright.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Coming Home by Pi [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13914672) by [Rhea314 (Rhea)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhea/pseuds/Rhea314)




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